My first thought is to ask where you are located, as there might be a parish or mission closer to you than you realize. Some, being very small, are kind of hard to find. I assume you've searched the web and the local phone book?

I live in a pretty large metropolitan area and was blessed to find a parish just 20 minutes from home (one of many O parishes in the area). However, I know that many other members of this forum make very long trips to church each week, some over 2 hours.

Yes, welcome! As BJohnD mentioned, there are ways to search for a parish near you on the web...one website that may help you is www.oca.org - go to Parish Listings and search for your area. This, however, is only one juristiction of the Church as it is represented here in America, so if you have no luck there, I'm sure there are people here who can provide you links to the websites of the other juristictions so you can run a similar search there. Let us know if you come up with anything!

Thanks for all your help. Am checking out the sites, etc..........and continuing to learn!

That is how I first learned about Orthodoxy, through reading up on the web and from there purchasing some books so that I had a "hard copy". Glad to hear that you are picking up more info through your research - you will find that you will never learn all there is to know about Orthodoxy, it's a life-long learning experience!

Louisa:After meeting someone who said they were an "ordained Orthodox priest", I tried to find out more about their church, but they acted like it was a secret society or something, lol! Of course, it was not the True Church, apparently it was a congregation or denomination without authority, although they claimed apostolic succession from an RC bishop somewhere. In my first attempts to find "Orthodoxy", I looked it up in the yellow pages, and couldn't find anything. God knew my heart, and I saw a tiny Orthodox mission as I was driving somewhere. There are at least five or six Orthodox communities in this area! I found out the reason I didn't find it in the yellow pages; I was supposed to know to look up "Eastern" Orthodox! After being given the actual name of the churches, I was able to look them up. I called one of them, told the secretary I had not been able to find them in the church section of the yellow pages. She said, "Well, you should have looked under EASTERN Orthodoxy !!!! As though all of us out here in never never land, looking for the True Church are supposed to know "Eastern". I didn't even know about Orthodoxy, other than some vague Bible-belt description as "Catholics that aren't under the pope." Hmm, I guess if someone had never had almonds, and wanted to try some, they SHOULD know to look under "Jordan", hehe .Louisa, I wouldn't be surprised if there is an Orthodox community closer than you think. I look forward to hearing the results of your search Finding the True Body of Christ has given me joy beyond description.In Christ,Kardia

This is good advice, Kardia.Unfortunately the GOAA by directive must list under "Greek Orthodox" in the yellow pages; while all the other churches properly list under "Eastern Orthodox". Crazy Greeks...

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"Religion is a neurobiological illness and Orthodoxy is its cure." - Fr. John S. Romanides

This is good advice, Kardia.Unfortunately the GOAA by directive must list under "Greek Orthodox" in the yellow pages; while all the other churches properly list under "Eastern Orthodox". Crazy Greeks...

Aristokles,

Unfortunately. that only works if "GO" is offered as a listing option by the yellow page purveyors - and it isn't in many instances.

Many years,

Neil

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"Not only is it unnecessary to adopt the customs of the Latin Rite to manifest one's Catholicism, it is an offense against the unity of the Church."

First note I am not planning on entering the orthodox, but as I was reading....

I see some say that they have to drive two hours a week just to go to an eastern orthodox.

Then someone posted a link to find the nearest one.

Well I did it...and there is NO eastern orthodox in San diego (that is hard to believe)...however I then just left the "jurisdictions" blank...and to find out there is only five orthodox churches in San Diego

US Parish Search St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church Rev. Fr. John Kariotakis San Diego CA St. George Serbian Orthodox Church V. Rev. Bozidar Draskovich San Diego CA St. John of Kronstadt Russian Orthodox Church Rev. Fr. Ilia Marzev San Diego CA St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church V. Rev. Fr. Hanna Sakkab San Diego CA St. Nicholas Orthodox Church V. Rev. Fr. Paul Kasaty, Rector San Diego CA

I was just curious....why is there so little amount?

I would think there would be more than just five...and I noticed some are greek, serbian...etc...

I can find how many RCC there are here in SD and the number is way higher than five....even protostant churches out numbers the amount of orthodox.....

I have heard though some people dont even have an RCC in their town in order for them to get to one they would have to drive 4 hours away....is this like a shortage of priests? Is this the reason? I feel sorry for the ones who can not go to church because there isnt one near them...

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"If only I could die because then I would not die" ~ St. John of the Cross

"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" (Jn 3;16) "Mary so loved us that she gave her only b

First, I would suggest that some churches are in and around the suburbs even if they are not technically listed as San Diego. A search on the receive site returns 157 churches in CA total.

Whether the ppl who founded the church were Greek, Serbian, or whatever, this doesn't change them from being "eastern orthodox."

There are fewer Orthodox churches in the US than Catholic churches or even many protestant denominations because there are fewer Orthodox! While Orthodoxy is the 2nd largest Church worldwide, news about it in America is just starting to get out. A city will generally only have between 5-10 Orthodox churches, maybe more if you're really lucky.

It's not a shortage of priests like it is in the RCC. There are more people attending seminary than ever before. It's a matter of monetary and human resources. In any given city, there might only be enough practicing Orthodox to fill 5 churches. Mission parishes are also not mentioned. The Church is growing by leaps and bounds, with huge numbers of converts, it's among the top fastest growing religions in the US. But generally there are enough churches to go around, except for those in areas that have unfortunately, not been exposed to Orthodoxy yet.

Here in the Northeast we have a pretty high concentration of Orthodox churches relatively speaking, but even then Catholic and Protestant churches vastly outnumber us. That is just a fact of the numbers.

There are some churches in SD County outside of the city limits. There's a GOA church in El Cajon, a Serbian church in San Marcos, another GOA church in Cardiff (I think) and an OCA church in Poway. There's also an Antiochian Mission in La Jolla, still within the city but apparently not listed.

Here in the Northeast we have a pretty high concentration of Orthodox churches relatively speaking, but even then Catholic and Protestant churches vastly outnumber us. That is just a fact of the numbers.

There are some churches in SD County outside of the city limits. There's a GOA church in El Cajon, a Serbian church in San Marcos, another GOA church in Cardiff (I think) and an OCA church in Poway. There's also an Antiochian Mission in La Jolla, still within the city but apparently not listed.

Ok...yeah duh me...maybe I should have been more specific. I am in the clairmont area..however it is in Sandiego...it is central area..

La Jolla is like five minutes away from me...maybe I should have put down like "clairmont" or for each "area" (which is STILL San Diego)...and by doing that I could problable get a much higher amount...I just think since this is a big city there would be more than just five...that blows my mind....

thanks

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"If only I could die because then I would not die" ~ St. John of the Cross

"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" (Jn 3;16) "Mary so loved us that she gave her only b

This is good advice, Kardia.Unfortunately the GOAA by directive must list under "Greek Orthodox" in the yellow pages; while all the other churches properly list under "Eastern Orthodox". Crazy Greeks...

Except in Raleigh, where they are listed with Copts under "Eastern Orthodox"

Ok...yeah duh me...maybe I should have been more specific. I am in the clairmont area..however it is in Sandiego...it is central area..

La Jolla is like five minutes away from me...maybe I should have put down like "clairmont" or for each "area" (which is STILL San Diego)...and by doing that I could problable get a much higher amount...I just think since this is a big city there would be more than just five...that blows my mind....

thanks

There just aren't that many Orthodox people in this country. I've heard anywhere from 1.5 to 3 million active church goers. The two areas I've been to with the highest density of churches are here in the Northeast (I’m in Pennsylvania) due to immigration from Eastern Europe and in Alaska, where many native peoples became Orthodox when the area was reached by Russian missionaries. I believe Orthodox Christians are still the single largest Christian group in Alaska.

The Serbian church your search turned up, St. George, is in Clairemont. I seem to remember it’s off the road that goes up to the Costco. You’ve probably seen the church from I-5, it’s at the top of a hill. I don’t know if that congregation does their liturgy in Serbian, English or both. The church in La Jolla is St. Anthony, and it is Antiochian. They meet in the facilities of an Episcopal church right now it looks like from their web site. All of their services are in English. I mention those just in case you’re ever interested in visiting an Orthodox church to see what it’s like.

There just aren't that many Orthodox people in this country. I've heard anywhere from 1.5 to 3 million active church goers. The two areas I've been to with the highest density of churches are here in the Northeast (I’m in Pennsylvania) due to immigration from Eastern Europe and in Alaska, where many native peoples became Orthodox when the area was reached by Russian missionaries. I believe Orthodox Christians are still the single largest Christian group in Alaska.

The Serbian church your search turned up, St. George, is in Clairemont. I seem to remember it’s off the road that goes up to the Costco. You’ve probably seen the church from I-5, it’s at the top of a hill. I don’t know if that congregation does their liturgy in Serbian, English or both. The church in La Jolla is St. Anthony, and it is Antiochian. They meet in the facilities of an Episcopal church right now it looks like from their web site. All of their services are in English. I mention those just in case you’re ever interested in visiting an Orthodox church to see what it’s like.

I know exactly what you are talking about the one by cosco...however I never known what kind of church it was though......

so there is more than I thought...

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"If only I could die because then I would not die" ~ St. John of the Cross

"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" (Jn 3;16) "Mary so loved us that she gave her only b

I'm having the same problem finding Orthodox parishes. It seems like all I can find are the Greek Orthodox. I do know of a Coptic church in my state, but I get the impression that there are probably other Orthodox churches. Sorry if I'm not using the correct terminology. I'm RC and I'm intrigued by Orthodoxy, but still know very little about it. I wanted to visit a few different churches and check it out. Any help finding more is appreciated. BTW I live in RI. Thanks.Linda

"Eastern" is not a particular definition of Orthodoxy, as much as it has to do with the difference between "Western", which is Roman, and "Eastern" -- please correct me on this, you all that know more -- didn't it have to do with the schism? Greek Orthodoxy is considered "Eastern Orthodoxy" -- it is listed that way here in the yellow pages.

As far as "Eastern Orthodoxy" in San Diego area, I actually lived there for several years, and there is an Orthodox Church there in Chula Vista that sponsors a mission in Tijuana. I'm pretty sure there is a good-sized Orthodox presence in San Diego. Sorry for the mix-up on the "Eastern" comment. I only was referring to how I found Orthodoxy here in Oklahoma.

We are working on getting "Orthodoxy" listed in the yellow pages, without the "Eastern" on it. I don't think it has any particular meaning here in the U.S.A. Here, the Greek, Russian, Antiochian, Antiochian mission, and Ukranian (I think that's right), are ALL listed under "Eastern Orthodoxy" in the yellow pages I just meant that I looked up "Orthodoxy" and there was no such heading. There was only a heading for "Eastern Orthodoxy". If the "Eastern" is taken away, those people that are not familiar with the phrase will be able to find it easier when they look it up in the phone book.